Smoking stubbed out on French beach
Source: Agencies |
August 4, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A SMALL town in Provence is attracting more vacationing families by turning a stretch of sun-drenched Mediterranean seafront into what it calls the first non-smoking beach in France, and possibly Europe.
The ban came into effect earlier this summer, and compliance among the public at the packed beach has surprised even the city official who came up with the idea, deputy mayor for the environment, Noel Collura.
Similar limits on smoking in French cafes, bars and restaurants are gradually undoing what was once a notoriously laissez-faire attitude to smoking.
Tourists who arrive at the "Plage Lumiere" beach pass under a large sign reminding them that smoking is off limits, and two cigarette-shaped ashtrays attached to the sign invite them to stub out their butts before they slather on the sun cream.
"We don't stop smokers from going elsewhere, but this one we want to reserve for non-smokers, for mothers and children so they can make sand castles and not cigarette butt castles," said Collura.
The population of the small town of La Ciotat triples in summer, as vacationers from across France join day-trippers from nearby Marseille staking their parasols on the sandy crescent lapped by gentle waves.
The town of 34,000 is known as the birthplace of the Provencal game petanque, and it was the location for one of the first films in cinema history, the Lumiere brothers' "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat."
Now it wants to be known for its clean and family-friendly beaches.
Collura contends that La Ciotat is the first and so-far only no-smoking beach in Europe. The only place he found with a similar law is New York City, which earlier this year banned smoking from city parks, beaches, boardwalks and pedestrian plazas.
The ban came into effect earlier this summer, and compliance among the public at the packed beach has surprised even the city official who came up with the idea, deputy mayor for the environment, Noel Collura.
Similar limits on smoking in French cafes, bars and restaurants are gradually undoing what was once a notoriously laissez-faire attitude to smoking.
Tourists who arrive at the "Plage Lumiere" beach pass under a large sign reminding them that smoking is off limits, and two cigarette-shaped ashtrays attached to the sign invite them to stub out their butts before they slather on the sun cream.
"We don't stop smokers from going elsewhere, but this one we want to reserve for non-smokers, for mothers and children so they can make sand castles and not cigarette butt castles," said Collura.
The population of the small town of La Ciotat triples in summer, as vacationers from across France join day-trippers from nearby Marseille staking their parasols on the sandy crescent lapped by gentle waves.
The town of 34,000 is known as the birthplace of the Provencal game petanque, and it was the location for one of the first films in cinema history, the Lumiere brothers' "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat."
Now it wants to be known for its clean and family-friendly beaches.
Collura contends that La Ciotat is the first and so-far only no-smoking beach in Europe. The only place he found with a similar law is New York City, which earlier this year banned smoking from city parks, beaches, boardwalks and pedestrian plazas.
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